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Rav
Yaakov zt"l on Devarim
Hagaon
Rav Yaakov
Kamenetsky zt”l on Parshat Devarim
(from
Emet
L'Yaakov on Devarim)
Why
Did Moshe Agree to Send the Spies?
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Moshe, when he recounts the story of the sending
of the spies, says, "All of you came close to me
. . ." Rashi explains that they came to Moshe as
a disorganized group, young people pushing aside
the elderly, and old people pushing aside the leaders.
What was Moshe trying to get across through this?
It is difficult to assume that he wanted to teach
them the need for respectfulness, derech eretz.
How is that related to the sin of the spies?
Rav Yaakov zt"l suggests that Moshe's critique was
that they came to him frantically, with confused
fear bred of a lack of trust in G-d. If they trusted
in G-d, but had some positive reason to request
sending spies, they would not have been disorganized.
They would have used the standard channels and had
their leaders present their case to Moshe. Moshe
thus showed them, as he recounted the story in Devarim,
that the source of their sin was a lack of trust
in G-d and His abilities.
However, this raises another, more powerful question.
If the source of their request was lack of trust,
why did Moshe assent? He should have stopped the
process at that point and refused.
The answer lies in a principle the Ramban sets down
in his commentary on Vayikra (26:11). The amount
of human initiative a person should put into his
practical, this-worldly life is directly proportional
to his degree of trust in G-d. Because we are not
on the level of total and absolute trust in G-d,
we use, for instance, doctors and this-worldly medicine.
There is an ideal (for some great tzadikim or in
some historical periods), though, to have such a
high level of trust that one places everything in
G-d's hands, even on the practical level.
Once Moshe saw that the nation was on a lower level
of bitachon (trust) than he had thought, he realized
that the conquering of the land of Israel would
also have to work differently than planned. Originally,
the land was to be conquered in a Divine-centered,
highly miraculous way. Now, though, it was clear
that they would not succeed unless they acted in
the way armies usually do. That would include scouting
out the territory, planning a military strategy,
and the like. Therefore, Moshe agreed to send the
spies, for now they really needed them.
[prepared
by Eliezer Kwass]
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